Instead of outright cuts to Medicare, which are so unpopular with voters, this administration plans to establish “Medicare spending per beneficiary,” a scoring system linking payments and penalties to the cost of health care hospitals provide, on a per patient basis. Some fear this will discourage hospitals from accepting the very sickest of patients in favor of those that will be less expensive to treat.

I had a few hours to deadline, and no idea what I was going to do for this week’s cartoon. My first thought was something about Silvio Berlusconi keeping his job by one vote. Italy is known as “the boot of Europe.” So I thought I’d make a joke like: The boot, doesn’t give the heel the boot.
Yuk, yuk, yuk. But that was weak.

Not five minutes later I came across an article about Putin’s hottie mistress. Well, I must thank those cheatin’ world leaders for this week’s cartoon.

Don’t you just love the part about Putin puttin’ all those pussycats in Parliament? Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin Cuties turn the Russian Parliament into A Russian Harem.

This week, Mean Maureen, Queen of Spleen, pounded away at yet another column that like so many others, should have been titled: “Knock, Knock, it’s Sarah Palin! Or, better yet: Knock Knock Sarah Palin. Once again she yapped on about Sarah’s hunting adventures. Haven’t we all heard enough From Maureen and the NY Times about how “Sarah killed a moose, and showed pictures of her at a “dressing party” where the moose is butchered? “How brutal! Hate Sarah Palin! Hate Sarah Palin! Please hate Sarah Palin!” But… the next week, in the Dining Section, they run a picture of a young woman butchering an animal – but this time, to editorial cheers. ”You go, green girl! Butcher your own meat!” Translation: she’s a Democrat!
Q: Are those NYTer’s the biggest hypocrites ever?
A: You betcha!
And who slaughtered all the pigs and cows in their neat rows of heating trays, lying under the sneeze guards in the cafeteteria at the Times?

Maureen, who slaughtered the cow that provided the steak au poivre you ate for dinner last night?

So after reading as much as I could of this editorial cud (as in: what cows chew, then vomit up, swallow, re-chew, repeat ad-infinitum) I thought maybe the comments section would provide some fun. How right I was! Below, Thomas Sonshi, not seeing the nose on his own face, says:

But isn’t it more accurate to say “that crazy broad at the Times has no empathy for those they go after?”
Not that I think Sarah Palin, needs wants or cares about Maureen’s empathy.
And anyway, isn’t “Maureen” & “empathy” an oxymoron?

Obama shoots himself in the foot again. Poor guy. In his new children’s book, Of Thee I Sing,” Obama profiles 13 inspirational Americans. One of them is Chief Sitting Bull. While I respect his right to choose anyone who inspires him, this seems like he’s painting a target on his own forehead. With all this talk about being un-American, he’s certainly given the conservatives the ammunition, beginning with having his first political fete hosted by Bill – blow up America – Ayers. Maybe Bam, Bill, Bull & Biden can all sit down and have a beer together at the White House to work things out!